What kind of school is Cranbrook academy of art?

[readymeade]

I've been looking into mfa programs. The schools I have been consistently interested in are UCLA, Yale, (sometimes Risd) and lately Cranbrook.

 

I've been wondering about the sort of program Cranbrook is, yet all the information I've gotten about stems from (I assume) outdated information on the graphic design program from the 90's. This lack of information, however, has only further increased my interest in the school. Is it a theory based school? is it oriented towards conceptualism? More towards formalism? without professors, or even classes, how does the school function in the first place?

 

I'd be grateful if someone had any information to share on this school.

[Owego]

What kind of school is Cranbrook academy of art?

 

That's a private school!! (Eminem voice)

 

 

Sorry OP, I don't have anything valuable to say but I saw the title and couldn't resist making an 8mile reference. Good luck with your search.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Owego

[Loric]

It appears to be a studio based program... where you work in the studio most of the time, occasionally go to seminars or presentations, and your benchmarks are measured by the critiques of faculty. It's a small school community so you're going to be eating, living, breathing the other people around you. It mentions weekly dinners you have to attend.

 

Really it works the way a lot of real world artists work.. they do all their studio time, occasionally research of look into some topic or theory to stay mentally limber, and then there's buyers and agents who come through for "bench critiques" that guide their artwork and prepare them for sale/show. It appears moreso a focused location and support system than a "school" so to speak.

 

If you're looking for anything at all like a traditional academic experience this is not the place.

 

I think the idea is to prepare people for the "real" working artist life. Out in the real world a painter, for example, if working in the studio most of the time on their next "thing" and occasionally their agent or buyer comes and checks in. Really, the agent is there through most of it and then schedules the buyers. The agent is sort of a "creative director" and guides the work and suggests ways to make it sale-able. Think Tim Gunn on project runway. Ideas are good, profit is better. Unsold art is unseen art. Then when the works are nearly finished the buyers come.. they choose things, they may say "this would be create if it had a contrasting piece.. and would work in our museum if.." and then those changes or additions are made.. that sort of things.

 

So this format of school works if you want to be a working studio artist.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Loric

[herki]

I'm not in the 2D department, but my studio is directly beneath them (they can probably hear the music I'm playing right now.)

 

Loric is pretty close to how Cranbrook works. The Artists-in-Residence are mostly there to maintain an environment in which the students can help encourage and refine each other's work. Most of the learning and development that happens come from classmates.

 

Each department works a little differently, but in my case:

• We have reading groups once a week, where we discuss a reading that gets picked out by a departmental assistant and the AIR.
• We have crits once a week too, where you might either show work or write a review of another person's work.
• We also have crit club every other week, where everyone who wants to participate breaks into groups of 4, and we go around to each others' studios and do studio critiques of whatever's being worked on.
• Just about every week (usually Thursday), there's at least one lecture by somebody that gets brought in either by the school or by an individual department. If your department brings somebody in, usually they sit in on your department's crits, do studio visits with you, and go out to dinner/drinks. Next week, for instance, on Tuesday we have the first lecture by our critical studies fellow (someone the school brings in for a semester to give lectures/studio visits/crits with everyone), and a lecture on Thursday by another visitor the school brought in.
• You might also have an elective as part of your week. (The size of the school means that you know just about everyone, and so you can sit in on critiques in other departments if you'd like, or if you really want to be gung-ho about it, you can elective with a department. If you elective, the requirements for what is expected of you varies department-by-department. Some you just have to show up for crits, some want active participation in critiques every week, some want you to write reviews for crits, some want you to be a part of reading groups too. In doing an elective and meeting that department's requirements, you get a critique session with their department, and a studio visit with their AIR, both of which can provide some valuable exterior viewpoints, especially if you choose an elective that isn't closely related to your practice.)

 

Specifically regarding 2D, I'm not sure if they have reading groups, but I'm thinking they do. I know they do critiques once a week, where 2-3 students show work, each getting a pretty decent amount of time for feedback. Another student is assigned to write a review for each crit piece, and after critiquing the piece, the review of the piece is also analyzed and critiqued. So make sure your writing skills are pretty decent. Regarding the work they do, since the AIRs choose who to accept into their department, each department tends to reflect the aesthetic sensibilities and artistic philosophies of the corresponding AIR. So in the case of 2D, check out Elliott Earls. IIRC, he used to work in commercial graphic design and got really fed up with it, and so he started doing super-experimental stuff, pushing the boundaries of what graphic design is. He's a really smart dude; he can cut right through all the crap and break down what exactly your stuff is about, which makes him really intense to get when annual faculty reviews roll around. (Or if you're in 2D, at every critique.) 

 

But yes, at times Cranbrook does feel more like an artists' community than a school. The environment isn't the best for developing your teaching abilities. There aren't any undergrad classes to TA, and sometimes it almost seems frowned upon to plan to go into teaching after graduation. If you wanted to teach, there are better schools for that.

Edited January 13, 2014 by herki